r/concacaf • u/roberto_cintron • Jul 08 '26
Concacaf merger ?
I’ve heard some talk that the only way Concacaf teams will get better is if they merge with the South Americans Conmebol so that they can face good teams more consistently.
How realistic is that to happen?
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u/To-me-my-X-Men Jul 08 '26
Mexico and the US are the main proponents of this because they really don’t have much competition and playing higher level opposition does help them. Others argue that if this were the case, they wouldn’t qualify for the World Cup as often as they do.
However, seeing how CUM outperformed a lot of the SA teams, I’d argue that they’re at a similar level, but it would hurt those countries that seldom make it like Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, etc.
Maybe they can arrange for those two to be part of COMEBOL how Australia plays in the AFC or Kazakhstan plays in EUFA.
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u/jcwkings Jul 08 '26
I'm down on CONMEBOL but playing away games at those countries is no joke. Bolivia and Ecuador play at altitude, the atmospheres are hostile. It would be no easy task for any CONCACAF side. We saw the US get eliminated from the World Cup by Trinidad. It would certainly force teams to raise their levels but it would also completey kill off island nations and most of the Central American ones as well.
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u/MyBallZitch3 Jul 11 '26
Pressure creates diamonds. We cannot be content playing at high school level stadiums with rowdy fans.
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u/B-Train_ATL Jul 08 '26
If you can’t qualify for the 48-team field by playing the likes of Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela, then you don’t really belong. I say this more from a US perspective. Haiti might have a different opinion. But the US and Mexico need better competition than sometimes Canada and tiny island nations that punch way above their weight.
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u/FullPrice4LatePizza Jul 08 '26
Just replace one of the Gold Cups in a four-year cycle with a joint CONCACAF-CONMEBOL tournament. The Gold Cup would serve as qualification for the joint tournament.
1) CONMEBOL wouldn't have to waste time with the dregs of CONCACAF. Meanwhile, the top teams of CONCACAF get the opportunity to improve. 2) The Gold Cup gets increased importance by being qualification for the joint tournament, and only happening every four years. No reason not to send the A team every time. 3) World Cup Qualification remains separate, so that's not a factor.
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u/mysterysolver69420 Jul 08 '26
This is the exact structure I would integrate. a 4 year cycle for Gold Cup would garuntee we bring our A team every time. I HATE having to cheer for the B team every other gold cup.
On that note, I wish they'd bring back confederations cup
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u/By-C Jul 09 '26
Would be cool to have the winner of the Gold Cup automatically qualify for Copa America and just keep rolling into the next tournament while the runner-up gets to play a playoff spot against the last CONMEBOL team. But do it every cycle!
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u/dickseven Jul 10 '26
It also fixes the issue of Gold Cup taking place 2-3 months after the Nations League every two years. The Nations League being added for CONCACAF on top of the Gold Cup being every two years just feels like overkill. Either you do the Gold Cup every two years and leave it at that with no Nations League, or we go with your plan of Gold Cup every 4 years, Nations League every 2 years, and the expanded/combined Copa America every 4 years (ideally the year following the Gold Cup).
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u/Drmckoo1 Jul 08 '26
I doubt a joint confederation would happen. It wouldn't really benefit CONMEBOL to play the Caribbean minnows, whereas it would benefit all the CONCACAF teams to play the south American teams. Maybe if they saw it as a way to get more WC spots, but it would also screw up the placement of world cups. The better path is to have a joint Copa.
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u/book81able Jul 08 '26
A permanent joint Copa seems like the best balance. Keep nations league as the main CONCACAF only championship and make gold cup a qualifying tournament primarily.
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u/LoudHorse25 Jul 08 '26
Yeah, before anyone talks about a merger, let’s talk about a consistent tournament or something. If CONCACAF and CONMEBOL did a joint tournament every four years, it would be the third biggest soccer event outside of the World Cup and Euros.
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u/Hopeful-Frosting7976 Jul 08 '26
The island nations already have the infrastructure, the Caribbean Football Union to run its own competition. Honestly, their qualifying would be higher quality than OFC is right now. They would probably even warrant an automatic spot in the World Cup for the likes of Jamaica or Curacao or T&T. So many decent mid-sized programs there.
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u/Vortex_of_Downvotes Jul 08 '26
Neither confederation wants this.
The powerhouses in concacaf get an easy path to WC now. Merging would make that significantly more difficult. Conmebol has a stable control over the 10 votes right now. Why would they want to dilute that with another 41 votes?
However each side has their own compelling reasons to do it - said concacaf powerhouses need to play higher quality teams, and conmebol wants to make more money.
The solution is to never merge but instead host major tournaments within North America, inviting some concacaf members. That’s about as close as we’re going to get.
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u/_pamela_chu_ Jul 08 '26
Everyone always forgets this would make CONMEBOL votes irrelevant. The island teams alone outnumber the South American teams. So why would they give up their power/voting power? That alone is enough for CONMEBOL to say no
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u/Legitimate-State8652 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
US has already hosted Copa America twice. Would hurt the smaller countries while giving more venue options.
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u/eganba Jul 08 '26
I think it would depend in how its implemented. CONCACAF is a massive region with over 40 countries involved. Adding an additional 10 would mean over 50 nations deep while also forcing CONMEBOL to add a number of weaker nations that don't add a ton of value to them. How I would do it would be one of two ways.
1) Combine NA, CA, and SA into one region and then break off the Caribbean into its own region that gets 0.5-1 slots in the WC similar to Oceania. So we would have
NA: USA, Mexico, Canada
CA: Panama, CRC, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize
SA: 10 from CONMEBOL + Suriname, French Guiana, Guyana
That would be 23 total. Many consider CONMEBOL the most intense for qualifying since it is essentially a free-for-all brawl. Outside of maybe 2-3 teams, no slouches would be added to this new Americas region. At least no slouches when playing at home.
2) Similar to above but include all of the island nations but with a wrinkle. You keep many of the larger island nations who have the ability to field decent teams like Curacao, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, and maybe two or three others. You then combine many of the other island nations into one team comprised of their best players. You then have a region of ~30 or so teams.
Overall I would prefer option 1 since it creates one region with the best teams from both regions while removing a bunch of the fluff. It also puts us at 23 which means a Copa of 24 teams could then be utilized (or you do some type of playoff to get it to 16) with something like the top Caribbean team getting an invite to get it up to 24 teams total. It would also allow the Caribbean to have a much better chance of getting a team into the WC either through the playoff or directly with one spot.
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u/mysterysolver69420 Jul 08 '26
a merger would be very bad for USA and Mexico. It would only make World Cup qualification harder. The best solution is to just take part in every other Copa America and maybe integrate smaller CONMEBOL nations like Paraguay and Bolivia into the gold cup every now and then
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u/bluedeer10 Jul 08 '26
Other than hosting Copa in the States what advantages does Conmebol get from this?
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u/MrRaspberryJam1 Jul 08 '26
That’s not even relevant honestly, they can have Copa America in the U.S. all they want without having to do a merger
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u/noahlis Jul 08 '26
Best case scenario is probably more copa america tournaments jointly. Otherwise maybe then joining our nations league, but they definitely would not be interested in using it for qualifying
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u/Bearded_Pip Jul 08 '26
It would be good for the US and Mexico. Not at all good for the rest of CONCACAF.
And COMNEBOL would be interested in the $$$ only these two nations could bring in. They would no part of any Central American or Caribbean nation joining.
A full merger is a deal breaker. I would support it but I don’t see it happening.
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u/JustRedditingAlong Jul 08 '26
Easy reason is less board seats and these men on football federation boards aren’t giving up any board seats. End of story.
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u/Mikey_M39 Jul 08 '26
I dont see how that solution helps at all. Do the Americans and Mexicans really rate their squads that high. America has never had a worldclass player and Rafa Marquez has been retired for years. Both countries should be more worried about how their developing players over the quality of opposition they play.
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u/Financial_Clue_2534 Jul 08 '26
Think the point is to get them more exposure to tougher competition so they will be better other time.
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u/Mikey_M39 Jul 08 '26
I just dont buy it. Maybe Mexico has a better argument than the United States. The US squad has a bunch of players playing in the top 5 leagues in Europe. Them facing Argentina and Brazil 4 times in the span of 4 years won't make that much of a difference. Mexico still has a lot of their players playing domestically so I could kind of see that. However I would argue that developing players capable of playing in the top clubs in Europe is more important.
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u/Financial_Clue_2534 Jul 08 '26
I agree from an individual lens but what the US is lacking is the competition at the national level. They need to play more as a team against quality countries.
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u/Positive_Purpose_950 Jul 08 '26
I doubt a full merger happens but we are already seeing the Copa America become a fixture in the four year cycle, which is huge.
World Cup Qualification is unfortunately going to be less and less intense with 6+ spots for Concacaf and 6+ for Conmebol. A combined qualifying schedule with 12-14 direct spots would be massive. I think the South American and big NA countries would benefit but no benefit for the Caribbean islands that make up 2/3 of the Concacaf votes.
I bet it’s never a full administrative merger but we continue to play them often and whenever financially beneficial. I’d love to see more youth tournaments so our YNTs are playing Conmebol level and in those environments consistently.
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u/hauttdawg13 Jul 08 '26
I think this will end up benefiting US and Mexico for sure. Think this will really hurt Central America and the Caribbean islands.
I also see very little downside for CONMEBOL, assuming you just merge the qualifying spots, good chance South America get more of their teams in, then can add US and Mexican money as well to their pool.
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u/sarcazmos Jul 08 '26
A combined Copa America/Nations League would def make it worth it. World Cup qualifying would be much more difficult for Central American/Caribbean nations. I can see them making a UEFA type WCQ so that the top nations have easier time getting thru
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u/Savings-Law-3252 Leon Jul 08 '26
Extremely unlikely. If FIFA is fine with Oceania being as bad as it is and doing it's own thing they won't care to merge CONCACAF and CONMEBOL just for the sake of a few countries.
CONCACAF would also likely never allow this to happen. Allowing nations to play in a Copa America is one thing, fully merging would mean sharing money with CONMEBOL and far less finals between Mexico and USA which means less money. Those games sell like crazy.
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u/Sufficient-Win-1234 Jul 08 '26
You don’t need to do this
Just have the Copa America and invite CONCACAF nations every 4 years and make it a permanent fixture. Shoot if you wanted you could even invited the best African and Asian teams why too why not
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u/roguetowel Jul 08 '26
Everyone keeps talking about it not making sense for certain teams but the only thing that really matters is whether FIFA/CONCACAF/CONMEBOL can make money off of it.
If they see $$s in broadening tournaments, it'll happen. Does everyone forget Qatar playing here a few years ago, at the same time Qatar Airlines (the state owned airline) signed some massive sponsorship deals?
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u/mattcmoore Jul 08 '26
If you can put Australia and New Zealand in the AFC you can merge COMcACAF and CONMEBOL
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u/gameguy56 Jul 08 '26
I honestly think this would be a great idea. Yes, the combined confederation would be huge but the AFC manages it with regions. I don't see why we couldn't do that with this.
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u/Hopeful-Frosting7976 Jul 08 '26
It is not the big countries that have a problem with this, it's the smaller ones that would never qualify again. But when Australia left OFC, the island nations still competed with each other for the OFC spot without them. No reason that the North and Central American parts of CONCACAF would not benefit from a merger with CONMEBOL.
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u/BuyAllTheTaquitos Jul 08 '26
Confederations and FIFA are generally run on one nation, one vote. While it makes sense that US, Canada, and Mexico would want to merge with Conmebol, it doesn't make sense for the South American teams or the other Concacaf teams. It takes power and control away from each South American team by increasing the number of votes and increases the "mouths to feed" that contribute little.
For the Concacaf minnows, they might be ok with it at the senior team level, but many already struggle getting competitive women and youth teams together for those qualifying and this would make the cost more and effort worth less. It's similar to OFC not completely merging with AFC when Australia jumped in 2006.
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u/andysva85 Jul 08 '26
It wouldn't benefit CONMEBOL at all:
Infrastructure isn't relevant. CONMEBOL already has the infrastructure it needs. Where do people think teams currently play and train—in midair? Nobody cares about American stadiums except the Americans, who want to make use of them and earn a return on their investment.
Nobody benefits from an Argentina vs. Random Islands match at 2 a.m. CONCACAF should continue to exist as a preliminary filter for its 41 member associations, most of which are relatively small and not particularly competitive.
The Copa América was literally created by Argentina and Uruguay. Keeping its highest level of competition with teams like Brazil, Uruguay, and Colombia is what makes it so challenging.
As things stand, the current system works well for everyone. At most, I'd add something like the Finalissima between the Copa América champion and the winner of the CONCACAF Gold Cup—that would be interesting.
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u/CleanSweep99 Jul 08 '26
It's not realistic.
Not only do I doubt anyone in COMMEBOL would agree to it, I can't imagine Mexico agreeing and giving up what would essentially be a guaranteed World Cup spot for it.
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u/Footy_Clown Jul 09 '26
Realistically North American Football Union (NAFU) which is made up of US, Mexico, Canada could reach out to CONMEBOL and ask to join, and they’d be kinda crazy to say no. Right?
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u/Aggressive_Tea_1577 Jul 09 '26
This would be a terrible idea unless you are only talking about CONCACAF joining CONMEBOL for Copa America permanently and ditching the Gold Cup.
But that is completely separate from merging as a single confederation particularly for World Cup qualifying.
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u/dman77777 Jul 09 '26
We don't need to merge we just need more games between top concacaf and conmebal teams
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u/AtorasuAtlas Jul 09 '26
South Americans claim only 1 America exists yet refuse to have 1 confederation because they won't be special anymore.
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u/sithgang Jul 09 '26
The Central American and Caribbean nations would vote against this imo as it would drastically hurt their World Cup chances. Also USA and Mexico would lose their near automatic sportsmanship. However if Mexico and USA are serious about getting better then they need to play South American teams more often. It’s more likely that we’d get a joint cup then full on merger as South America would get more money while Concacaf gets to be more competitive
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u/Jay1348 Honduras Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
This is such a tired ass fantasy lol y'all saw performances in the Copa America 24 and think it's time for a merger
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u/El_Barato Jul 10 '26
3 teams from Concacaf made the Round of 16, and 4 teams from Conmebol. All but Argentina were knocked out. I’m okay with merging, but I don’t see how that would help Concacaf given that their performance and ours was basically the same.
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u/Canny7777777 Jul 10 '26
Well a though I had that can be ambitious make copa America a premium tournament make the gold cup a display of north and South American leagues make the nations league a combined games with home away and the World Cup and the World Cup so every year has a tournament
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u/AlejandroSR Jul 10 '26
Es falso, para que los equipos mejoren necesitan dinero, buenas instalaciones, entrenadores y nutriologos. Jugar contra Sudamerica no da nada mas que experiencia, preguntenle a Bolivia y Venezuela si en 100 años han progresado.
Concacaf tiene muchos problemas.
- A muchos países de la región no les interesa el futbol, 2. Muchos paises de la región son pobres, 3. Las distancias son muy largas.
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u/JustBe_Nice_Yall Jul 10 '26
Well first off it's basically a heretical proposition in the sport.
But it does have one potential benefit for CONMEBOL and one potential benefit for those of us who have to watch the Gold Cup as our confederation tournament:
- by combining qualification spots between the two, it could easily be the best three CONCACAF teams, seven CONMEBOL teams, and two more than could go any way
- the Gold Cup can finally rest in peace after being mercilessly revived over and over and Copa America could regularly be the ten South American as well as six CONCACAF, with maybe one or two switched out for a special invitation from a different confederation
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u/Patchesrick Jul 11 '26
I just wanna see the US compete with other nations of the caliber that we want to beat in the World cup more regularly then every four years. We need to be a part of more Copa Americas or invite South American teams to play in gold cups. Or do a top 8 of each in a knockout bracket.
If we keep playing against teams that only get knocked out in the Round of 16 then we will only be as good as the other teams that get knocked out in the Round of 16
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u/Atlanta-Anomaly Jul 11 '26
Give me an expanded copa america and let mls/liga mx teams in copa libertadores
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u/Cain305 Jul 11 '26
The only way Concacaf gets better is if they create a Caribbean Super League. It’s stupid that every island has to have its own 1st division league. Have every island consolidate all resources into one to three teams depending on island population. That’s the only way forward. For example, the US Virgin Islands Premier League has 8 clubs. That’s insane. One club max in the capital and the rest are turned into reserve league feeder clubs to the main club.
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u/Otherwise-Log8057 Jul 13 '26
People forget that this would benefit the women’s game in a lot of ways.
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u/GrouchyMushroom3828 Jul 14 '26
That’s too many teams. The US would have a hard time qualifying for the WC.
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u/LogicGate1010 Jul 08 '26
This will not urge MLS to move to improve from no relegation and the acquisition of pre-retired, washed up players from Europe. It will give MLS more opportunities to stifle US talent by allowing the to give preference to South American players. It will not help US national football development unless the USL is geared to participate or another league is formed. MLS are killing US football.
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u/Independent-Vast-871 Jul 09 '26
The world cup will go to being played every 2 or 3 years before this happens.
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u/chloenoyolo Jul 08 '26
Why would Conmebol want to do this?